A ética de adolescentes de Manaus diante de dilemas socioambientais na Amazônia

Abstract

The root of environmental problems is being presented as part of an ethical question manifested in people's relationship with nature. This study sought to identify the ethics of teenagers about socioenvironmental dilemmas, featuring ethical environmental concerning and the possible application of ethics and identifying the ethos of the responsibility and the forward solution of environmental problems. The objectives were achieved through the adolescents‟ perception from 9 public schools in Manaus, from 6th to 9th school years, and ages of 10 to 18) The five dilemmas dealt about disposal of waste in streams; irregular land occupation; the use of pesticides; the construction of hydropower with social and environmental impacts; and urban mobility with emission of greenhouse gases. The research used an exploratory qualitative methodology with interviews and survey protocol. The content analysis and non-parametric statistics data were used. The results showed that the adolescents have sensitivity and understanding of environmental issues, but with limited moral reasoning to the production and solution of environmental problems. They manifested an anthropocentric ethics of care in three dilemmas (water pollution and waste disposal in the stream; illegal occupation of green areas, and urban mobility and its impacts) and for the other two dilemmas (use of pesticides and increased farmer income, and construction of hydroelectric and environmental impacts) they presented an ecocentric ethical perspective. These findings were supported by studies of Kahn and Lawrence with such variation in the application of moral reasoning of adolescents in the environmental context.